Insect eating root tips of leafless ghost orchid!

[mremensnyder]

Thank you for the continued follow-up advice everyone.
At the very least my three new orchids are protected from most hazards in a cage and are enjoying hot humid summer conditions here in Central FL and will be for the next several months. The conditions here during our summer rainy season are almost identical to the Fakahatchee where the ghost orchid is native. Maybe the humidity here isn't as high by day due to the swamp microclimate of the Everglades, but the overall weather/climate is extremely similar. Thank you for the good luck Leafmite, I'll need it

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The orchids you mention are not nearly as difficult to grow as Dendrophylax lindenii.

Your humidity levels should be fine for the ones you mentioned.

[mremensnyder]

The Microcoelia species in particular is reputedly cool growing so it is going to be real interesting to see how it handles a hot, humid Florida summer. I don't think I'm going to have a problem with the humidity, even for the ghost.

As for the original problem, the affected root tips are appearing either shriveled and black (perhaps sucked dry) or obviously just eaten away (gone completely). I now think the culprit is something that can fly, as I don't imagine anything that crawls could cross the water barrier in place. More pesticides and some flying insect traps are what I will be trying next.

[Romeomffn]

any updates on the status of your leafless collection?